Blackkklansman: Movies Minute by Minute - Paperback

by Alex Zamalin (Author), Nicholas Rombes (Editor), Nadine Boljkovac (Editor)

A minute-by-minute analysis of Spike Lee's infamous film, BlacKkKlansman.

Blending film criticism with creative nonfiction, each book in the Timecodes series focuses on one film, exploring it minute by minute beginning with minute one, and ending with the final minute before the closing credits.

Film scholars have examined Spike Lee's inventive visual style, didactic argumentative structure, use of music, and cinematic movement, but his film, BlacKkKlansman, is also a meditation on questions of perennial concern to political theorists: what is the meaning of freedom under social constraint? How does racism and anti-Blackness structure the parameters of conversation and belonging? Is redistribution or recognition crucial for justice? Alex Zamalin takes up these questions by examining the dynamics of race and politics as presented in the film.

Through dissecting themes of law and order, white supremacy, police brutality, Black rebellion, and intersectionality, Zamalin invites readers to draw connections to the present political consciousness of the Black Lives Matter movement. The creative and thorough analysis presented in this book translates just how pressing social and cultural insights can be glimpsed through popular media.

Author Biography

Alex Zamalin is Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Rutgers University, USA. He is the author of 6 books, including: All is Not Lost: 20 Ways to Revolutionize Disaster (2022) and Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility (2021) and co-editor of American Political Thought: An Alternative View (2017). Zamalin has been a guest on NPR and MSNBC, and his work has been featured in The Guardian, ESPN's Undefeated, the Christian Science Monitor and YES! magazine.